February industrial output falls and misses forecasts

SPAIN'S industrial output fell more than forecast in February, data showed yesterday, racking up a 22nd straight month of declines and dampening expectations the country managed to emerge from recession in the first quarter.

Output fell by a calendar-adjusted 1.9 percent in February, way below forecasts for a slide of 1.2 percent as most sectors of the economy struggled, the National Statistics Institute figures showed.

January's fall of 2.9 percent was revised down from 2.5 percent.
All sectors of the index fell in February, apart from intermediate goods, with the steepest fall in consumer durables, down 12.8 percent and reflecting weak demand.

However, that was an improvement on the 21.8 percent fall of the previous month.
The data fuels doubts over whether Spain's recession ended in the first three months of 2010. The economy contracted by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 after a decline of 0.3 percent in the third. “I am not optimistic about the Spanish economy because the recovery of foreign demand is not strong enough to change the trend in the domestic economy,” said Jose Luiz Martinez, strategist at Citigroup.

The Bank of Spain forecasts the economy will shrink 0.4 percent in 2010, versus a government forecast for a contraction of 0.3 percent.